1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile safety devices and more particularly to obstruction sensing for passenger car power windows with glass-embedded "smart wires" connected to ultra-wideband evanescent field disturbance sensors.
2. Description of Related Art
Several very tragic accidents have occurred over the years involving automobile power windows that closed and injured people, especially children. The federal government is likely to impose stiff regulations in the next five years that will mean an end to power window accessories if some reliable safety mechanism cannot be included. Some research has been conducted in equipping the power window motors with torque sensors that will reverse the direction if some resistance is encountered in a closing window. Similar, but quite simple torque sensors are found in automatic garage door openers that will reverse when closing if sufficient closing resistance is encountered before the full travel has finished. However, such torque sensing is unreliable, and an injurious amount of closing force can be applied by a power window so equipped.
Passenger car applications present a unique challenge for safety equipment solutions which need to be robust, reliable, easy to service, inexpensive to manufacture and have life times that exceed the car as a whole. The lining of window openings with touch-sensitive membranes or the placing of micro-switches behind escutcheon pieces to sense the pinching of obstructions in the window opening are each inadequate on one or more of these requirements.